Jimi Tenor

Best referred to as techno’s initial cabaret superstar, Finland local Jimi Tenor is everything you may imagine Detroit’s response to a cheesy lounge musician would be. Arriving off as some sort of lo-fi Prince cross-bred with Maurizio, Atom Center, as well as perhaps Jean-Jacques Perrey, Tenor’s recordings are released through Sähkö/Puu (house to most from the scant Finnish techno picture); even though they stand out from the label roster such as a sore thumb, they will have attracted something of the devoted cult pursuing, mainly one of the IDM/electronica crowds. Unlike many electronica artists, nevertheless, who consistently name-check Kraftwerk, Juan Atkins, and Carl Craig as affects, Tenor leans even more toward brands like Barry Light, Isaac Hayes, and ’70s B-movie and blaxploitation soundtracks. Classically educated, Tenor gained the eye of important Sheffield label Warp after launching the full-length Europa in 1996, resulting in a recording offer and reissue programs for a few of Tenor’s Sähkö produces. Warp highlighted the previously unavailable Tenor trim “Downtown” on the Blechsdottir label comp and released the 7″/Compact disc single “Can’t Stick with You Baby” several months afterwards, with two extra singles showing up in early 1997. Ahead of his solo function, Tenor fronted Jimi Tenor & His Shamans, who in 1988 beginning releasing many albums over the Poko, Euros, and Poor Vugum brands (including Total Capability of 216, 5 Litres, Diktafon, and Concern with a Dark Jesus, including a 3-D sleeve and eyeglasses). Regardless of the examined imperfection of his recordings (Tenor chides contemporary digital music for sounding lifelessly exacting), he spent 12 years learning piano, flute, and saxophone in a Finnish music institute. After dissolving the Shamans in the past due ’80s, Tenor transferred to NY, where he proved helpful as a visitor photographer on the Empire Condition Building. He finally installed with Sähkö after finding a copy of the solo documenting by Mika Vainio (of Skillet Sonic and Ø). Impressed using the label’s openness to experimentalism (Sähkö acquired previously been referred to as something from the muso’s minimalist techno label), Tenor delivered along some tapes and got a recording agreement, liberating his debut, Sahkomies, in 1994. During NY he also documented with Khan/4E’s Can Dental (beneath the name Bizz O.D.), releasing the “Visitors” solitary on Ozon in 1995. Tenor came back to Finland in 1995 to film a documentary of Sähkö (funded, strangely enough, by a federal government grant) and it has continued to be there since, launching Europa in 1996 and securing licensing and documenting agreements with Warp. The full-length Intervision premiered in 1997, implemented two years afterwards by Organism. Following the discharge of Away from Nowhere in 2000, Tenor and Sähkö parted methods with Warp. Tenor’s 6th full-length, Utopian Wish, an overtly single consumer electronics record, still received transfer distribution. Tenor was executing with a big music group for 2004’s Beyond the Superstars, distributed broadly through Kitty-Yo, and 2007’s Joystone along with his support device Kabu Kabu. The mixture also matched for 2009’s 4th Aspect. This year 2010, Tenor and Afro-beat drum star Tony Allen collaborated on the quantity in Strut’s exceptional Inspiration Details series. Itetune, a cooperation with Ethiopian percussionist Abdissa “Mamba” Assefa, made an appearance in 2011. In Feb of 2012, the very first exhibition of Tenor’s photos were shown on the Kingi Kongi Gallery in Helsinki, accompanied by his initial feature film, Sähkö, which debuted in Berlin. He capped the eventful calendar year by launching The Secret of Aether with Kabu Kabu for Kindred Spirits. Tenor documented the experimental Dub of Doom with Icelandic reggae music group Hjálmar in 2013, along with the experimental Exocosmos with Lassi Lehto’s global Imposter Orchestra. He and Nicole Willis co-produced Finnish music group Haunted by Hallucinations’ self-titled debut record, and he performed on Masterstone by Lehto’s Level Earth Culture. His lengthy association with vanguard saxophonist Kalle Kalima and drummer Joonas Rippa within the Tenors of Kalma led to the album Electric powered Willow, that was released by Enja’s Yellowbird imprint in 2015.